Venomous ‘jellyfish’ have sparked warnings from sea life experts after the deadly creatures washed up on UK shores.
The Portuguese man o’war, often mistaken for jellyfish, has recently been found on UK beaches as a result of stormy weather, prompting warnings about their ability to kill humans.
Even though incidents are extremely rare, a toxic sting from the marine creature can kill a person, even if the Portuguese man o’war is already dead.
The beasts, which can grow up to 160ft long are rarely found in Britain, however, they can wash up between September to December after strong westerly winds - and that’s exactly what has happened recently, according to The Wildlife Trust.
Their purple bodies can grow to 12ft but their ribbon-like tentacles which hang from their body can can grow up to 160ft and are virtually invisible.
Stormy weather has driven them from their ocean lairs and they are now scouring shallow waters off the UK’s coast in search for plankton to devour.
According to CornwallLive, the deadly ‘jellyfish’ has been found washed up on Sennen Beach and nearby Portheras Cove in Cornwall prompting experts to issue a warning to the public.
A Wildlife Trust spokesman said: “First of all, the Portuguese man o’war is not a jellyfish. It is a colonial hydrozoan, made up of small individual animals called zooids - each with their own specific function, e.g. feeding or breeding.
“They can’t live separately and function together as one ‘animal’.
“The Portuguese man o’war lives at the surface of the open ocean, held afloat by a gas-filled bladder. This has a crest-like structure at the top which acts as a sail.
“They can’t swim and are at the mercy of the winds — which is why they often end up washed ashore after big storms.
“They are fearsome predators, catching small fish and crustaceans with their long stinging tentacles.
“It’s these tentacles that you need to watch out for too — they can sting long after the animal has died.”
People have been urged not to touch the creatures and to keep their pets away from any found on beaches.
